Fallen Veteran Honored For Service In Korean, Vietnam Wars

On Easter Sunday in 1968, Mary White had a plane ticket in hand to go see her husband, Marvin Burrows, who was to arrive in Hawaii after fighting for the Army in Vietnam.

On Easter Sunday in 1968, Mary White had a plane ticket in hand to go see her husband, Marvin Burrows, who was to arrive in Hawaii after fighting for the Army in Vietnam.

Before she could leave, however, she received a letter informing her that Burrows died in the line of duty. He was killed in the Binh Doung Province, just north of Saigon, by shrapnel from enemy fire.

It was nearly six months before his body was sent back home to New Blaine, in Logan County, White said. Their children, Gary, 4, and Jackie, 8, had difficulty coping with the loss.

At the funeral, White said Gary noticed something was off.

“My son said, ‘Dad’s gonna be mad.’ I said, ‘Why?’” White said. “’Because his medal’s crooked. That thing on his shirt is crooked!’”

White described her husband as 6 feet 4 inches tall, with a commanding presence meant to lead an army. He was a tank crewman, a drill sergeant and an expert in rifles and pistols.

Burrows also served a year in the Korean War shortly after he joined the Army in 1951, where he was taken prisoner and survived after North Korean forces blew up his tank, White said.

After the Korean War, Burrows had assignments all over the country, in Okinawa and in Germany from 1953-67. It was during that time he and Mary first met.

“I was in Fort Smith working, and I came home and my cousin, she was getting married and they were going to have a dance at the church in Paris,” White said. “She said, ‘C’mon, I want you to meet somebody,’ … and oh, he was a real good dancer. So we got along quite well.”

Outside of his Army service, White described him as lovable and as a reliable provider for his family.

“Everybody loved him,” White said. “He loved to gamble — thank the Lord we always had extra money. He was good at that. He liked his cards; that was his way of relaxing.”

On Feb. 27, retired Lt. Col. Steve Gray, military liaison to Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., presented 14 awards to Burrows’ family at White’s home in New Blaine, including the Silver Star for valor, the Bronze Star for heroism and the Purple Heart.

“I am truly honored as a U.S. senator to recognize the service and memory of Marvin Burrows,” Boozman stated in a letter to the family. “In his shortened 16 years in the Army, Marvin had done more and seen more than most 30-year-career NCOs.”

The ceremony was the first time Burrows’ daughter, Jackie Morrow, had ever heard the story about her father’s death.

“When he was in Vietnam, he was a tank commander, and he sent his men in,” White said. “They got into the bank before he did, and he ran out of ammunition. And of course they got him, and that’s when he was … you know.”

White said she never could muster up the strength to tell Gary and Jackie about what happened to their father.

“Mom would not talk about it with us because she did not want that part of it to be … because she said I had a hard time dealing with it. I went to school and told everyone, ‘No, he’s not dead, he’ll be home,’” Morrow said. “I just don’t handle it well at all; I’m a big girl, but I’m still a baby.”

Initially, the plan was to hold the ceremony at the courthouse in Clarksville to accommodate for a large number of people. It was moved to White’s residence in New Blaine in part because Burrows’ son, Gary, suffered a severe injury about 20 years ago that left him largely immobile with severe burns, White said.

White said the announcement was sudden, and that she was notified that morning while she was at a beauty shop.

Morrow said her mother called her while she was at work as a dispatcher with the Clarksville Police Department, saying that she needed to come home because “everybody’s coming over tonight.”

The house was a perfect location for the ceremony, Morrow said.

“It was nice because it was family and a few friends, and that was where mom told dad goodbye when she kissed him for the last time before he left,” Morrow said. “It was just very tearful, but very sweet.”

When Burrows decided to leave home to serve and train the new soldiers heading into Vietnam, it was a point of contention with his wife.

“We talked about it a long time, and he said, ‘No, I have to go.’ I said, ‘Well, you’ve got to let me know if it’s worth it,’” White said. “He finally wrote me a letter and he said, ‘Yes, it is … If I can keep it over here away from my kids, I’m going to stay. I did the right thing.’ Well, I still didn’t agree with him but I didn’t let him know.”

Looking back, White said her husband’s dedication to serving in Vietnam made sense considering his strong desire to protect his family.

“He would’ve been very disappointed if he couldn’t have went back into the service. I didn’t understand then why, but I understand now,” White said.

Gray stressed Burrows’ dedication to duty, commending him for making the difficult choice to return to combat after already fighting in a previous war.

“It was confided (to me) that during his time as a drill instructor at Fort Knox, he mentioned to his wife that it was getting more difficult to train the new soldiers, knowing what they would face in combat and wondering if (they) were ever ready,” Gray stated in an email. “That he should go fight as he was a seasoned veteran from Korea and would have a better chance at surviving and coming home than the new green recruits.”

Morrow said she was grateful to Gray and Boozman for honoring her father, and that the ceremony opened her eyes to aspects of her father’s life previously unknown to her.

“It made me understand a lot of the things that I did not understand before,” Burrows said. “To see my mom, she was so proud. (Gray), he did a wonderful job, I gave him a hug. I didn’t know what else to do, I couldn’t tell him ‘thank you’ enough. Senator Boozman, well, he’s got a new fan. OK, he’s got two new ones because he really went out of his way to help Mom get all this.”

Morrow said the experience was a bittersweet moment for everyone involved.

“My mom is a hard woman; she didn’t ever want to show her emotions in front of me and my brother because we were so young,” Morrow said. “She was crying and I do believe that’s the first time I’ve seen her cry about my dad in years. I told her it was OK because you’re allowed to cry. She said, ‘I’m just so used to not crying in front of you all because I didn’t want you to think I was weak. But I loved him so much … even all these years later.’”

White eventually remarried several years later, but lost her husband to a heart attack. She said she feels very fortunate despite the trauma her family has faced over the years, but that remembering Marvin Burrows is still difficult.

“It’s still hard to take — I don’t care what anyone says. It’s still hard to take,” White said. “He loved everything he got, other than being away from his family.”

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.